CBC wants new Canadian only basic cable packages
In a submission filed with the CRTC on Monday and received by Digital Home Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada is recommending that basic cable and satellite television distributors be required to offer Canadian consumers a pared-down package of basic TV programming.
The public broadcaster is also recommending that a percentage of the price paid by consumers go towards subsidizing local television broadcasters.
In what is essentially a modified Fee-For-Carriage proposal, CBC’s all-Canadian cable or satellite package would only include local Canadian television stations and government mandated stations with a maximum price to be determined by the CRTC.
Currently cable and satellite distributors require Canadian consumers purchase a basic cable or satellite programming package which contains aboriginal, government funded, parliamentary and weather channels mandated by the CRTC, local Canadian and U.S. television stations and shopping channels. According to the CBC, these basic packages range in price from $18 to $38 and carry from 20 to 46 channels.
In its submission, CBC/Radio-Canada is suggesting a smaller “Canadian only” basic cable and satellite package whose content and price is fixed by the CRTC. The CBC does not specifically say which channels would be in the revised basic package except to say that it would exclude U.S. stations and digital specialty channels.
Although not spelled out in the CBC document, the proposed CBC package would likely include CRTC mandated channels such as APTN, the legislature channel, public broadcasting channels, the Weather network along with all local over-the-air French and English stations.
For a city like Toronto, that would likely include about 15 channels including: the cable community channel, CTV, Global, CBC, CityTV, Legislature, APTN, CPAC, Star, Weather Network, SunTV, Omni1, Omni 2, CP24, TVO, RDI and CTS. The CBC is proposing the price be between 78 cents and $1.28 per channel in the package which would make such a package come in at between $12 and $20 per month, a potential savings of $6 to $18 a month over existing packages.
Channels, often found in cable and satellite basic packages that would be eliminated under the CBC proposal would include all American networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, and WB), all digital channels (TSN, SportsNet) and any timeshifted Canadian stations.
The CBC says that by eliminating these extra stations and using a portion of the proceeds to fund local broadcasters, both consumers and broadcasters will be better off. Consumers pay less for basic cable and local broadcasters will get more funding.
The problem with the CBC’s logic is that most, if not all Canadian cable subscribers want those U.S. television stations and want stations like TSN. Under the CBC proposal, Canadians would then be required to pay for a second add-on cable package for the local U.S. stations and perhaps a third add-on Sports package to get all the stations originally in their original “basic” package.
Add all those essential U.S. local stations and Sports channels back in mix, add in the new amounts being funneled back to broadcasters, and the cost to consumers under the new CBC plan would likely be even higher to consumers.
Discuss and download the complete submission in our Canadian Television forum.
Actually, the only, and I mean the ONLY, channel I would want is The Weather Network (and truthfully, I have recently started getting irritated with the number of stupid commercials even on that channel). I canceled cable a few months ago; it just isn’t worth it. I will set up an antenna soon so I can watch some Olympic events. I now take the $60 a month (Cheapest available in my area) and buy DVDs and tv series DVDs instead. Now, if I could get the Weather Network and a few local news channels for $10 or less a month I would reconsider; but, until then, well, none of them will get my money.
That is what is pretty much coming down too. Soon enough Cable/Satelite providers will lose more and more customers when people can just download the show they actually want to see without ne commercials and such or just pay for the dvd tv series, without the irritating commericals; then sometimes sit at home, have a good time chilling watching marathons of whatever show that it is you desire without the BS that would come along normally if viewed on cable/satelite.
CRTC and Cable/Satelite providers have to get it out of there heads, that they can control ne thing and everything they want; when the canadian public doesn’t like it in the first place.
The only show my mum watches is Coronation street, then she turns off the tv after cause everything else is crap. Everyone else in our family either just buys the series they want, or watch them on sites.
I wanna see some figures from Cable/Satelite providers from 1980’s+ to now too see how much those packages have declined in being purchased.
HEY STUPIDS, EVER HEAR OF A TV ANTENNA?
Uh, you know those things are obsolete in a couple years right? We’re all converting to digital, not heard of it yet?
Who’s the “stupids” now?
You can get digital TV with the right antenna and converter (if necessary because you have an older TV set). Not heard of that? Who is stupid here?
With a digital antenna set up one can get digital TV without cable, Anthony. Be careful calling other people stupid.
personally, i live in an area with terrible reception. cbc comes through fairly well on a clear day but it’s really nasty when it’s raining. i could get a dish, i guess, but it’s not worth it to me.
the few channels i’d be interested in paying a very small amount for for (cbc, parliamentary channel…that’s it, really) will probably always be broadcasting over the air because their mandate is technically to provide a service to the country, not to make a profit for their owners.
if i was to pay for the package, i’d basically be paying to get a reliable signal to the parliamentary channel. i’d happily take the extra channels, but i’m not sure i’d ever watch them.
yes, i understand that i’m not representative of the average canadian. however, i do think that tv is slowly dying a competitive death in the minds of young people as it’s losing out to the pc and the smartphone and that, overall, television will be remembered as just another one of the many mind numbing peculiarities of the baby boomer generation.
when they were young, they stumbled around on acid; when they were old, they glued themselves to their idiot boxes.
if television wants to continue to be relevant beyond the death of the boomers and then exist at all beyond the death of the xers, it’s going to need to change very drastically. the cbc’s proposal is something that happens to appeal to me, but it’s the general idea – splitting the services up into more affordable packages that users can choose for themselves – that is the real novelty as this is going to have to become the standard moving forwards.
What would be interesting to see is if it is able to be budgeted and lowers costs. If people can choose or not choose it then I don’t see the harm. Maybe there is something I don’t realize.
If we are going to be Canadians with our own national identity then I think the CBC has a point. I think all this American programming is causing Canadians to forget who we are and is part of the issue of us not having a real national identity. For pities sake our own Prime Minister admits to not watching Canadian television if he can help it. As much as I enjoy American television, I think it would ultimately be good for the nation of Canada to require that all homes have all Canadian stations before they could have any others.
The question is who pays? If you want Canadian content, fine! You pay for it, not me. What is our identity? What has it ever been?
Good grief! People watch American programming because it is considerably better than Canadian programming. As for it being a reason why we don’t have a real national identity, I seriously hope you are joking. This nation hasn’t had an identity since Day 1 and that was long before any of us could watch Amercian TV programming. If you want to pay for left-wing propoganda to make you feel more Canadian then I suggest you lobby the government and Canadian broadcasters to allow you to pay extra fees to watch their Canadian programming. Don’t expect me (and I’m sure about 95% of other Canadians) to pay extra for crap that I have no interest in. I’ve reached the stage where I want support for Canadian broadcasters, producers, etc. to *end.* Their greed as gone too far and I hope all of this backfires on them. I’ll cancel my cable before I give those jerks one extra cent.
Easy for people who live in Toronto to talk about an antenna… You get 25 channels. Think about everybody else in Canada who have only 3 to 5 channels they can receive.
Just as Bell and FreeHD offer to give a basic package for free to ALL canadians (provided you buy a dish and receiver), CBC wants to kill them. If you get the channel with an antenna: free, if you use a dish: $$$
In other words, if you live in Toronto, you get 25 channels for free, if you live in a smaller city, too bad. For example, in Quebec city: 5 channels (1 HD channel). Smaller cities have even less. You want the 25 channels they get in Toronto? Well, it’s $30/month..
If CBC wants to be paid (in addition to subsidees and publicity), they can get themselves on the specialty channel list. We have to have a choice not to pay for it. Of course, if it’s a specialty channel: NO SUBSIDEES.
I’m sure most English speaking canadians won’t pay for SRC, and most French won’t pay for CBC.
There are channels like YTV and TSN which are Canadian, but are not “digital”. These should be included, precisely because they are NOT available by antenna.
Almost all the stations proposed to be in the cable package are not simply available over antenna for free, but they are available in HD format.
As much as I am for Canadian talent, I have always felt that the Canadian Content rules force things on viewers that they don’t want. I don’t want the CRTC to dictate to me what I get to watch. These days, I rarely watch TV and get most of my news and entertainment on the Internet. When the CRTC starts to try to dictate what I can access online, then there will be a fight. I never watch CBC Television. I do, however, listen to CBC radio all the time in my car and I think that there are a lot of excellent programs on CBC Radio.
While there is a lot of Canadian television talent, we have to admit that the television market is dominated by the US and that they have more money and just do it better. I’m not saying there aren’t some good Canadian television shows out there, It’s just that if they weren’t on, I probably wouldn’t care anyway and I certainly don’t like the CRTC telling me what I’m allowed to watch.
Finally, I wonder what the laws are in the UK? They produce some really great shows in a small country. British acting is usually excellent.
I cut my cable this year because anything I want to watch can be found online or purchased in a box set at the end of the season. Really. I’d rather save 50 a month than have a bunch of channels that never have anything interesting playing and only 3 or 4 that do.
Hear hear! I do exactly the same thing. I’m happy with my free CBC channels and purchasing seasons of shows.
Heck yes, give me an all-Canadian channel option (although with the recent redesign of CBC News, who can really tell the difference between them and FoX/CNN?) I watch early morning news Monday thru Friday, with a very very rare hour of evening news and I have to subscribe to satellite to get reception. Why should I be paying for channels I never watch? Based on what I’m being charged for satellite basic, getting rid of all the US and speciality channels should lower my bill to under $10.
all Canadian TV carriers are switching over to digital signals in 2011, american carriers switched this year (their signal is turned back to analog by our carriers so we can watch it on cable).
Once this is done all television signals will be digital and there will be no analog cable packages offered. This new service CBC proposes would be a completely separate service of analog cable, opposed to what will soon be the digital only offerings of private cable carriers.